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A New Service Delivers Guitar Strings to Your Doorstep at a Discount

Many dealnews readers already know about the Dollar Shave Club. But here's an unusual twist on that blade (or axe, if you will): last week Hello Music unveiled a Dollar Strings Club, which uses a strikingly similar sales model to equip guitar players with fresh strings, delivered to their door each month.

The Los Angeles-based web marketplace and social commerce platform will market guitar strings under its own label, and has three pricing tiers that mirror the Dollar Shave Club. HM Select ($1 per month with $4.95 s&h) delivers a set of vintage-style, nickel-plated steel strings; HM Premiere ($7 per month with free shipping) gets you cryogenically frozen strings with twice the lifespan; and HM Platinum ($9 per month with free shipping) delivers deluxe strings with increased mass, tighter windings, and extra-long life. Members can cancel their subscription at any time, with no further obligations.

How Do Dollar Strings Club Prices Stack Up?

So does the service provide users looking for music dealss an opportunity to save? Well, because string quality and brands vary so much — and because Hello Music's product is new to the market — it's difficult to do a one-for-one, straight-up cost comparison. However, consider what you might pay at a music store like Guitar Center. For an electric guitar, a set of Ernie Ball nickel strings currently sells for $3.99. Cryogenically frozen strings by Dean Markley are $5.99, and a top-quality package of GHS roller wound strings costs $15.49. Shipping will add $5, making the Dollar Strings Club less expensive on all tiers when factoring in the convenience of shipping.

However, you can also avoid delivery fees with Guitar Center by visiting the store. The song of savings is played by Dollar Strings Club as it most provides the ultimate value if you want the service of having strings delivered periodically to your front door.

A Familiar Model for Saving

Dollar Strings Club owes more than a passing nod to its shaving sibling for design inspiration; the "DO IT" arrows that activate subscription tiers look interchangeable for both websites. "We are huge fans of Dollar Shave Club and many of our staff are members," says Hello Music CEO Rick Camino. "They were definitely an inspiration. It's an incredibly successful e-commerce model that translates well for our musician community."

Once a fledgling company that provided artist services, Hello Music has transformed itself into a daily deals website for musicians. It has acquired more than 225,000 new members in a year — more than doubling since November 2011, and has expande 20% per month. That makes it one of the fastest-growing online resources for musicians, whether it be a new guitar or a session with an established producer.

But will musicians line up to get strings dropped on the doorstep every month? Camino's betting on it: "We have become a trusted resource for almost 300,000 active members," he says, "and the idea came about via their daily feedback."

Are there any musically-inclined dealnews readers out there planning on trying the new service? Do you run through guitar strings fast enough to make it a cost-effective option? Sound off in the comments below.

Lou Carlozo is a dealnews contributing writer. He covers personal finance for Reuters Wealth, and was most recently the managing editor of WalletPop.com, and before that a veteran columnist at the Chicago Tribune.

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